Henry:
I didn't see the warning signs, but when you love and trust someone completely, you aren't really looking for them either.
I didn't think anything of it a year ago when my wife of 28 years, Traci, started mentioning a new co-worker in recounting the events of her workday. Some guy named Tyler, a kid who had recently joined the team she was on at Geiger Insurance, one of the nation's top life insurance companies. She said he was brash and a bit of a flirt, and pretty good looking as well. She said she thought the young girls on the floor were jockeying for a position to be the go-to person to help the new guy -- with any number of questions, professional or personal.
People were always coming and going at Geiger. It was a large national company with probably a thousand employees in its home office in a large New England city. Traci had been there 20 years, was an assistant vice president, and had pretty much seen it all. By the tone of her voice, I could tell Tyler was nothing but another of the hundreds of upwardly-mobile young people that had gone through the office before.
Looking back on it, I should have been concerned when he continued to turn up on her nightly recaps, as she continued to make mention of the effect he was having on most of the women in the office. She almost never brought up anything about him being successful at his job, but the notes were always about him flirting or the women discussing how they'd like to spend some "quality" time with him. Not her, of course, at 50 she was old enough to be his mother and she was sure he wouldn't be looking at her with all the younger women around, she'd note. He was 26 by the way, she said, the same age as the oldest of our two grown children.
Traci:
It was quite humorous, really, to watch all the women in the office scramble for attention from Tyler, our new guy. He was incredibly handsome and well-built, and he knew it, too. He was also brash, and a shameless flirt. I enjoyed watching him chat up everybody else. Me, I was the unit's mom, having been there the longest, and at 50 I was old enough to be this kid's mother. For the most part, he kept his distance from me.
And then one day, we were assigned a project together. Actually, I was assigned the project. His job was to provide support.
At first, he played it real cool, being very solicitous, but around the second week he started to do to me what he does to all the other women: the small compliments about the clothes, pretending he was interested in some personal stories I was telling someone else, a few extra smiles my way, and then finally putting his hand on my forearm in a more familiar way then was probably professional. I didn't say anything at the time to him, figuring that it certainly wouldn't continue with me, plus, since I was wise to the game, it had no chance in hell of succeeding.
But I had to admire his pluck: instead of being rebuffed by my noncommittal, he seemed to intensify his efforts to get me to like him, both on a professional and personal level. And, after a while, I had to admit to myself that he wasn't such a bad kid, with several redeeming professional qualities, and again, his good looks certainly made it easy to look at him.
We began to work together on a couple more projects, and without my even realizing it, we had our own friendship thing go on, outside of the work friendship. We'd occasionally go out to lunch together, and when we all went out together for an after-work drink or two, Tyler was always at my table, if not at my side. And, truthfully, I enjoyed his presence.
A couple of the other long-time female staffers noted how chummy we had become. I agreed with them, not ashamed, because I noted to them that it was purely friendship; he was like one of my kids.
Tyler:
When I first came on board, I was incredibly impressed by the number of good-looking available women on the team. Traci didn't give me the time of day. But as I got my feet on the ground, I noticed that Traci was the cream of a very good crop. I'll admit I have a thing about older women, but Traci would be an attention-grabber in a roomful of women of all ages. She's just fucking beautiful, and while her body may have some time on it, it's damn good. Especially those big tits. I knew I wanted some of that, so little by little I was gaining Traci's friendship and, more importantly, her trust.
Henry:
Although I was tired of hearing the Tyler updates, I should have been concerned when they stopped altogether. It's almost like he fell into a black hole. A couple of times I even inquired about him, and Traci's response was something to the effect of "well, he's still around."
Traci is an absolutely beautiful woman. She looks at least 10 years younger than her 50.
She has the tits of a goddess, and the rest of her body is fairly hard from a lot of work at the gym. She's 5-9, doesn't slouch a bit to minimize her height. If anything, she's got just about the best posture you'll ever see on a fairly tall woman. I've always known I was incredibly lucky that this goddess fell in love with me.
When we were younger, I was always nervous that somebody would try to steal her away. But through the years, I've seen her deflect all kinds of unwanted male attention, and my trust for her -- as well as my love -- was complete. While I occasionally still got a little out of joint when I would hear of another guy sniffing around, it had never warranted a second look on my part.
We've raised two wonderful children, both now grown and out of the house. Our oldest, Chelsea, is 26, married, with the only grandchild we have so far, a gorgeous 2-year-old boy. Our youngest, Ellie, is 24, and got married just last year. We think between the two of them, we can have several grandchildren in a few years. Now, however, it looks like those future grandchildren will be visiting Grandma and Grandpa at different places.
Traci:
Tyler and I were working late on a Tuesday night on a project that had to be finished on Friday. I had told Henry that I was going to be late because of the project, maybe late for the whole week, but I didn't tell him that I was working on the project with Tyler. We had taken a short break for some delivery Thai food, and were just finishing picking up when it happened: Tyler leaned in and gave me a gentle kiss on the lips. You know when something is wrong, but feels so good, you need more? Well, that's exactly what happened with me. At first, I backed up and looked at him, with alarm bells going off in my head, then I stepped forward and gave him a gentle kiss on the lips. We looked at each other for a few seconds, then I told him we needed to get back to work.
We worked until just before 9, when I told him we should wrap it up.
"How about we go to Zeno's for a quick drink?" he suggested.
That was all it took. I knew better, but I still said yes.
We drove our own cars over to Zeno's, which was about five minutes away from the office. Zeno's is an upscale bar and grill, and we took a table toward the back after I first looked around to make sure I didn't recognize anybody, except for the waitress, Marie, and the bartender, Jack. The work crew occasionally stopped here, so we both had gotten to know some of the staff.
We sat at spots one and two at the table, rather than across from each other, and I honestly can't remember what we talked about in hushed tones. He was sitting to my left, and reached for my left hand with his right. When I put my hand in his, he stopped for just a moment to look at my wedding rings, but then he curled my hand into his, leaned over to me and gave me another of those soft kisses. It was almost as if we were high school kids out on our first date. It had been a lifetime ago for me since I dated at all, and I had forgotten about those little butterflies you get in your stomach on a first date. I was tingling inside, wondering where this was going to go.
Two drinks in, I glanced at my watch and noticed it was 10:15. I needed to get home to Henry, although that's not how I phrased it to Tyler. We kissed again, he helped me into my jacket and I left.
Tyler:
That was amazing. Now my worry was how she would react to our "date" tomorrow. Depending on how guilty she felt, tonight might have been a one-off. I was hoping that my taking it slow would pay dividends, as she would see that I wanted more than just a one-night stand.
Henry:
Traci walked in at about 10:45, and I noticed she had alcohol on her breath when she pecked me on the lips. I didn't say anything right then, figuring I would let her explain how a tough night at work turned into drinks.
Traci:
"Whew, that was a long day, Henry," I said as I hung up my jacket. "The crew and I hit Zeno's for a quick one on the way home, trying to blow some of the dust off of ourselves."
Henry knew that we occasionally stopped at Zeno's, so it was easy to sort of tell him the truth. I was impressed with myself for not feeling bad for stopping at all. It's not like he's never been out late before, I told myself.
We made some small talk for about 10 minutes, then I read today's mail and told Henry I was ready to turn in because I had another busy day tomorrow. We got into bed, turned off the lights, and I turned away from him and pretended to go to sleep fast. But I didn't sleep. I lay there thinking about Tyler, and what had happened tonight.
Henry is a good man; no, a great man. At 50, he still looks good and is fit and trim. He is a good lover, although not quite as good as he used to be, but he can still get me for several orgasms with his incredible fingers and magic tongue. He is a wonderful provider, being an engineer with a good salary and benefits, and as a father to our children, he is the best. He always helped me with the kids when they were little, and he wound up coaching them in several sports. His good salary allowed me to be a stay-at-home mom for a few years while the kids were little, although my restlessness led me back to returning to the workforce.
So with all that Henry's got going for him, why was I lying in our bed thinking about Tyler? Maybe it was the adventure of something new, maybe it was the thrill of a strange man finding me attractive. I know it's wrong.
I was pretty cool to Tyler when we first got into the office in the morning, and I could see his brain working overtime trying to figure out if it was over before it started. After lying in bed thinking about it for half the night, I was pretty sure I was going to end it in the morning.